The Trip of a Lifetime

The fabled Trans-Siberian Railway rolls briskly across seven time zones and 5,772 miles of taiga, steppe and mountain, pausing along the way in places that bring the traveler face to face with the fascinating cultures of Russia. It gives you the opportunity to meet and get to know people from all across the huge country of Russia and beyond, to Mongolia and China.

Why Travel with MIR on the Trans-Siberian Railway

30 years of Trans-Siberian travel experience

Patricia Schultz, author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, recommends MIR as the company to talk to about a Trans-Siberian journey

Travel programs such as Northwestern, Harvard and Johns Hopkins have chosen MIR to guide them along the Trans-Siberian line

Twice named one of National Geographic Adventure’s “Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth”

On-the-ground support and quality you can trust

Personalized travel planning from start to finish

Guides and tour managers that clients rave about

Signature Experiences

We regularly garner applause from our travelers for the inspired opportunities we provide to help them get to know the local people. Below is just a sampling of the Trans-Siberian experiences MIR has designed to take our clients far from the familiar.

Savor a Russian snack of vodka and caviarEnjoy a tasting of Russian vodka with an accompaniment of caviar aboard the luxury Golden Eagle private train....

Sample goodies made by grannies on the railway platformsSample homemade delicacies sold by babushkas, or grandmothers, during quick stops at the local train stations; sweet buns, cookies, blini and homemade pickles...

Sample goodies made by grannies on the railway platforms

Aboard the regularly-scheduled trains

Sample homemade delicacies sold by babushkas, or grandmothers, during quick stops at the local train stations; sweet buns, cookies, blini and homemade pickles all make an appearance at do-it-yourself train-side concessions.

Custom and private travel is our specialty. We’ve been designing unforgettable custom itineraries across the breadth and depth of the Trans-Siberian Railway network for 30 years; a majority of our guests travel on custom itineraries.

Take a look at our scheduled Rail Journeys by Private Train departures or read more about how to design your own trip. Also, consider this: You can customize our small group Trans-Siberian tour to match your preferred dates of travel.

Next Steps

Visit a rehabilitation center for Siberian TigersVisit the Amur Tiger Rehabilitation Center, a small, privately-run establishment outside of Vladivostok within the home range of the rare Siberian tiger...

Next Steps

Suggested Itineraries for Private Travel

Whether you’re looking for a compact trip with all the highlights or something a little roomier with some of the extras, MIR’s Private Journeys department can suggest places to see and things to do based on our local knowledge, and design a one-of-a-kind itinerary for you, your family or your group of friends.

The Trans-Siberian routes can be traveled at any time of year. Since these trips cover such vast distances, the weather at any time of year is rather unpredictable.

Russia is great to explore at any time of year. Summertime temperatures range from 60 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, lower around Lake Baikal. Summers in Siberia are usually quite hot. Winter gives Western Russia a classic Russian look not seen in any other season. It will likely be cold and snowy with temperatures ranging from 0 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (with the chance of subzero temperatures).

Mongolia has a short travel season, June- September. While the Gobi will be quite dry and warm in the summer, the rest of Mongolia is at its best during July and August. The daytime temperature range you should plan for is a dry 60-100 degrees Fahrenheit for the summer, but September can be much colder. In all seasons the desert cools down significantly at night so all travelers should plan to bring a jacket or windbreaker.

China generally experiences hot summers and cold winters. Travel is possible any time of year, but the best times are from May through October. In May, Beijing temperatures run between the upper 50s and the upper 70s. Temperatures peak in late July and August, with Beijing highs in the mid to upper 80s.

Please remember, weather at all times of year has an element of the unpredictable. This information comes from weatherbase.com and is based on data from previous temperatures on record. It is always advisable to check with weatherbase.com closer to your departure date for current conditions and forecasts for the specific regions you will be visiting.

Our Favorite Places in Trans-Siberian Railway

Moscow

Russia’s capital city has become a world-class destination in recent years, with fine new hotels, tasteful renovations and greatly improved infrastructure. The Kremlin’s Armory Museum filled with imperial treasures, the famed Tretyakov Gallery of Russian art and the recently re-opened Bolshoi Theater show off the city’s polished aura, and MIR can also guide travelers to less well-known places like Stalin’s secret underground bunker and the Russian cosmonauts' Star City.

Ekaterinburg

Ekaterinburg, founded in 1721, is best known as the place where the last czar, Nicholas II, and his family were imprisoned and executed by the Bolsheviks. Today, the Church on the Blood stands over the spot where Czar Nicholas II and his family were killed in 1918.

Novosibirsk

Expanding Novosibirsk, with a population of 1.6 million, is the largest city in Siberia, and its industrial center. Novosibirsk did not exist before the Trans-Siberian railway was built, growing up around the place chosen for the rail line’s Ob River crossing. Nikita Khrushchev relocated his best scientists 30 km from here in 1959, in a special town built expressly for scientific research, called Academgorodok, or Academy City.

Irkutsk

The Irkutsk area has been a place of exile since Genghis Khan offered it to captives as an alternative to death. Czarist and Bolshevik political exiles from the 18th through the 20th centuries ended up bringing culture and education to Irkutsk after their terms of slave labor ended. A lovely little city, Irkutsk still embraces examples of the old wooden houses with the intricate fretwork and shutters typical of Siberian architecture.

Lake Baikal

The deepest and most ancient lake in the world has a multitude of opportunities for every kind of traveler. MIR can put together an outdoor itinerary with hiking and kayaking, introduce groups to experts studying the lake’s native wildlife (including the nerpa seal, a species found nowhere else on earth) and take travelers across the lake to sacred Olkhon Island – by boat, ferry, hydrofoil or hovercraft.

Ulaanbaatar

UlaanBaatar is the political and cultural heart of Mongolia, and the country’s largest city. Located on a high plateau, surrounded by towering mountains and bathed in brilliant sunshine much of the year, it is home to the country's most extensive cultural, historical and archeological collections. Mongolians were traditionally nomadic people, and the concept of a settlement or city is fairly new. UlaanBaatar, or Red Hero, was established only 350 years ago, when the trade routes between St. Petersburg and Beijing made it an important trade and commercial center.

Among our favorite sites in and around Ulaan Baatar are the Gandan Monastery, Mongolia’s first sedentary monastery, built in 1838 and Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, located on the country’s high steppe and boasting 4,600 square miles of alpine terrain.

Ulan Ude

Ulan Ude was founded in 1666 by Cossacks as a winter encampment on the Selenga River. Today it is the center of Russian Buddhism and the location of one of the only datsans, or mon­asteries, to survive Soviet times. The indigenous people of the area, the Buryats, are closely related to their Mongolian neighbors, sharing their Tibetan Buddhism and earlier sha­manism.

Vladivostok

Meaning “Rule the East,” Vladivostok was born in 1859, when the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia explored the coastline in the steamer Amerika, and chose Golden Horn Bay to be Russia’s new Pacific port. Although it has far outgrown its military origins and taken its place as a significant Pacific Rim city, Vladivostok remains the headquarters of the Russian Pacific Fleet.

Beijing

Multi-faceted Beijing, modern capital of China, is the country's most important city and its political and historical center. A city of contradictions, Beijing's skyscrapers overshadow traditional narrow alleys (hutongs), and the remnants of Imperial China sit alongside five star hotels and western brand-name stores.

Beijing’s numerous landmarks, ranging from the Temple of Heaven, site of Imperial prayer in the long-past Ming and Qing dynasties, to Tiananmen Square with its Great Hall of the People and mausoleum of Mao Zedong, tell the long history of China, as well as the short history of the People’s Republic.

Kazan

Kazan, capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, is an old city on the Volga River with a fascinating multiethnic history. When Ivan the Terrible won Kazan from the khans in 1552, making the Volga a Russian river, he brought with him Orthodox Christianity. Today a Russian kremlin wall surrounds the old town, and both Orthodox churches and mosques are found in the city. The entire ensemble is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Journeys that travel to Kazan

Khabarovsk

Founded in 1858 by Cossacks of the 13th Siberian Battalion, Khabarovsk was originally a military outpost guarding the Chinese border. Built on three hills overlooking the Amur River just beyond its confluence with the Ussuri, the city has a long and pleasant waterfront. Its main streets are wide tree-lined boulevards projecting outward from the riverbank. Khabarovsk began to expand after the arrival of the Trans-Siberian railway from Vladivostok, and today it is home to 700,000 people.

Journeys that travel to Khabarovsk

When to Travel to Trans-Siberian Railway

December-January-February – Winter

In the deep winter, with snow on the ground, you can experience fresh outdoor activities from ice-fishing and horse-drawn sleigh rides to ice-skating on Red Square. Lake Baikal freezes to a depth of 10 or more feet, and is a fantastic place for winter sports such as under-ice fishing, Siberian dog sledding with Siberian huskies, cross-country skiing and canvasing frozen Baikal on a hovercraft in search of ice formations.

White Nights

St. Petersburg is about the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska. This far north, during the long nights of summer the sky never gets completely dark, but retains the glow of the sunset until the sunrise starts the process all over again. It is a mysteriously beautiful phenomenon that Russians call the White Nights of summer. Since a northern winter is correspondingly dark, people who live here are apt to stay up late and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. Mid-June to early July is the peak season and the museums are congested with the traffic of cruise ship travelers. In general, hotel availability is stretched and prices are at their highest during this time period.

Naadam Festival (July)

The annual Naadam Festival is Mongolia’s favorite festival, showcasing Mongolia’s best in wrestling, horse racing and archery as well as uniquely Mongolian sports such as “ankle-bone shooting.” It originated many centuries ago, but in the 20th century this celebration of courage, strength, dexterity and marksmanship acquired new content and became more national in character. The festival now commemorates July 11th, the anniversary of Mongolia’s independence from China.

August

Russians and Europeans go on holiday in August and this can be a great time to visit. The European business-people are not traveling as much as at other times, so better hotel deals are available in the big cities. Moscow and St. Petersburg’s famous ballet companies are on break as well, so don’t expect to see the Bolshoi or Mariinsky companies perform (note that these top theaters are not scheduled from mid-July through the end of September. Regardless, other quality theaters are still open in summer and usually stage a few classic ballets.

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Traveler Reviews

“This is trip of a lifetime and more than just a train journey. This is also a chance to see a phenomenal cross-section of Russia (and Mongolia) in a relatively short time. Great camaraderie and interaction with the passengers.”- A. Mowatt Jr. - New York, NY